Blind Faith
by Ben Elton
Bantam Press, HK$187
Readers would be hard-pressed not to compare Blind Faith with George Orwell's 1984. In Ben Elton's dystopia, set in Britain 50 years 'after the flood', with the country's population crammed onto the only land not submerged, privacy is an anomaly, citizens live to snoop and no one thinks it abnormal to record every facet of their meaningless lives on Facebook-like social networks. In this future hell, faith is everything, science is illegal, ignorance celebrated and 'nakedness is modesty'. There is even a clandestine relationship involving protagonist Trafford Sewell, a new father who baulks at the rule against inoculation (in a society where infant mortality tops 50 per cent) and resists making public a video of his child's birth. Our hero, who thrills at the thought of keeping some things to himself, joins a secret group of humanists, who, among other things, champion reason and literary fiction, another no-no. Although touted as a comic novel, the 12th book by comedian-turned-novelist Elton is darker and more satirical than funny. Despite its polemical nature, there is a story that saves it from being just a rant. One thing Elton fails at, however, is his choice of names. Caitlin Happymeal and Bishop Confessor Solomon Kentucky just aren't funny.
